Very OT

Gee Whiz, That's a lot of posts isn't it, she said giggling all the while. Juno

I've kept out of this discussion so far, but I'm probably better qualified than most to offer comment - I was a distribution engineer in the electricity supply industry until I retired a few years back. I've worked through several 'exceptional, once in a hundred year' system emergencies, the most notable being the storms that hit the UK in October 1987, and snow in June also comes to mind.

The one thing customers want, and the one thing the companies *can't* give for the first 24 hours or so is information. There will be literally hundreds of faults - in my area of 717 sq. miles in 1987 there were tens of faults at 33,000 volts, a couple of hundred at 11,000 volts and quite literaaly well over a thousand at low voltage. It takes at least 24 to 36 hours before the engineers get an idea of the situation.

I realise also why you made your comments - web information ain't much good if you haven't got electricity, and the mobile phone network may not be much better if their cells are off supply as well.

The one thing I heard over and over again from customers was a cry for realistic information. Managers have a tendency to be *far* too optimistic with restoration times. The public fairly soon realise that a major emergency exists, but they do get really hacked off with being told two or three days on the trot 'We're hoping to get you back on today.'

Oh, and as for 'Pamela', well this usenet. :-)

Thanks Richard for your comments. As you say, Power companies do tend to be unrealistic in their estimates of how soon they will be back. Customers tend to be very testy after a few days. We have had many outages in this area. Some for more than a week.We have always survived and will continue to survive because we accept the fact that we can't always be first. DH and I have a lot of back ups and do the best we can in bad situations. And as you say. As for Pamela, this is usenet. It does strike me as a Dilbert moment. Are you familiar with Dilbert. You can google him if not. Juno

Precisely!

...and there will always be newbies....

Beverly

Yup, we were in the middle of that one... No way out of the village for

24 hours due to trees down across the roads, and power out for several days after that, then intermittently for several MONTHS as the guys traced all the lines and found all the faults and fixed them... Sometimes we lost power for a day or two while a particularly knotty problem was fixed. And as the months went by, lots more trees weakened by the tsorm came down and took more power lines with them...

The power guys working on the mess were fantastic, and everyone TRIED to keep us informed, but it wan't always possible.

And sometimes, for several days at a time, we had power but no phone, because the same poles that carry the electric power to us also bring the phone lines and were felled by trees just as they were...

Fun, for certain values of fun.

And they hadn't quite got that mess sorted by the following February, when we all got cut off by snow, and lots of the new power lines were felled by ice, and it all had to be done again.

And folk wonder why we talk about the weather! :P

Our lot were MUCH more realistic. 'We're hoping to FIND the fault today', we were told, 'But we won't know how long it will take to fix until we know where it is and what the difficulties are. Some we can find but can't get engineers to until dangerous trees are removed first!' And in some cases, that took several weeks. We have never been more appreciative of the emergency service helocopter pilots as wer were in those months.

"Everybody talks about it, but nobody does anything" ?? Well, after the fiasco of Hurricane Gustav last year, when we obediently evacuated but where we went to got it worse than home did (remember, I told you about that one, I called home and the answerng machine picked up, and we promptly went back home where there was power). So, we bought a generator, several very long, heavy duty power cords and a small, one room, window air conditioner.

Now that we are all prepared, I told my local friends not to worry there wouldn't be any hurricanes this year, and there have not been!! I look on the money spent on the generator as being an insurance payment.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

How could I remind you of any lack of preparedness when the power is out? I may, or may not, have properly prepared myself. "There is no way in hell I'll be alble to let you know that, now is there."

Your "humor" in your initial posting wasn't evident.

Yes, I remember...

And we do not live in a hurricane/tornado/severe weather area. What we live in is a freak weather area! :D

Only to the severely humor-impaired, everyone else here understood exactly what Juno was implying.

Beverly

For me, myself and I; the note Pamela posted was SPAM. Why? Because she never posts here about any sewing she's doing or has done; instead only criticism about an item by a regular poster on this group.. If she is a sewist, then she should post articles about sewing. Emily

You know the more she writes, the deeper the hole.I find her notes very amusing. But then again I have a very warped sense of humor. Juno Juno

Right on, Emily.But I also know your sense of humor is as crazy as mine. Juno

She and what's-his-face could have a mutual admiration society. ;-)

You have a sense of humor. Reality is warped. Humor just reveals it more clearly. To those with a sense of humor. I can think of nothing worse than going through life without one.

Pamela, you have been chastised by being "new" to this group and only posting a couple of times. Let me orient you:

1. Although this is a sewing group, those who post most often feel free to post about any subject, with or without "OT" in the header. The rest of the frequent posters (the anointed ones) follow along, probably out of professional courtesy. In their minds they own this group, and are very territorial. Just do a sort by clicking "sender" column and the landlords are immediately apparent. Alternatively, just note those swarming to this thread which you joined.
2. There is one exception to the above rule of freely posting on any subject; one subject herein is strictly verboten: Thou shalt not under any circumstances make any post which expresses criticism of one of the anointed ones, whether intended or not, real or imagined. This will be met with the swarm coming to life and exiting the hive to protect the attacked queen in the traditional way.
3. The hive metaphor is apt, because bees produce honey and sweetness if undisturbed. For example, there's a good deal of sewing knowledge among the members and they're willing to share and help with advice when you need it. That's why I'm here, for the info. I contribute when I can, and sometimes rile them up when I forget Rule 2. Kind of like some marriage communications, now that I think about it. That's 50 years in my case; still working on it!

JPBill

:-) It is an OT thread anyway and how many other current posts here are about non sewing activities? What about vacuums and beaches? They aren't sewing.

I sew but I don't sew all the time and perhaps others who read here regularly don't either. I view this ng as vicarious sewing. If I don't get near my machine, at least I can read what others are doing.

I didn't read 'Pamela's' initial post in this thread as being a criticism of Juno's preparedness or Juno's post or a criticism of anything. It was merely a contribution to an OT thread about the advantage of being prepared for what life throws at us all. Not bad advice methinks.

However, I did think that Juno's response to Pamela was rather more terse than was required from what Pamela wrote. I have no problem with that either. If Juno wants to be terse well that's fine by me too.

I don't know if 'Pamela' exists or not, but likewise I don't know if any other poster exists under the name they use and that is regardless of how long I've been reading them.

'Pamela' is getting more criticism than is deserved for both an OT thread and for what 'Pamela' actually wrote in that initial post.

What a peculiar post.

I think it has far more to do with some posters thinking they can be blunt, even rude and ill-mannered when posting in a way they wouldn't in a face to face situation.

Politeness, good manners never hurt anybody.

Ah, well, once again I missed the posting of the Usenet Master of Etiquette "JPBill". A google search turns up the interesting perspective that this froup has queens, anointed ones, and a metaphor about bee hives. JPBill's quite specific jab of "chastised by being "new" to this group and only posting a couple of times." apparently refers to a couple of my follow-up posts.

Juno prefaced her original message (October 2, 3:00PM) saying "Is it just me or does anyone else see the irony in the following article. It's about our local power company."

"Pamela" responded (October 3, 3:31PM *a full 24 hours later*) by saying, "Other than to "cope", have you prepared for being without power? You have some responsibility to care for yourself." (which seems quite critical to me).

Then Juno replied with " I really didn't expect a lecture on my responsibilties. I just thought it was pretty funny that a power company decided to put up a web site to keep customers...",

to which Pamela wrote, "Your "humor" in your initial posting wasn't evident."

Perhaps "irony" has a different meaning on Pamela's planet.

Pamela read the entire thread before jumping in, she might well have seen Juno's own reply (on October 2, 3:34PM) saying. "And that dear friend is the catch. Maybe you just whistle!" Surely THAT would have been perceived as humor? Beverly

Yerss, so was I! Worked for two 24-30 hour periods with anly a very few hours sleep, had to take a day off to recover, then settled into working about 16 hours a day for the next ten days!

We had loads of linesmen from the Irish Republic, they were all put up in hotels around Gatwick. Oh, and it was the time the first mobile phones appeared, full sized handsets, and a battery pack as big as a couple of house bricks....

Odd, the little cameo images that the memory holds - a plantation of conifers with a 20-30 wide swathe through the middle that was totally flattened, an old oak tree some 3-4 ft diameter where the crown hsd been torn off about 12 ft above ground, an acre or two of green houses at a market garden completely flattened.....

One of the few perks for me after the event, I was trained as an 'emergencies' observer so for several years got a couple of days every year doing line patrols by helicopter. None of your 15 minute joy rides, this was 6 hours flying each time!